The present invention relates to a child seat for vehicles according to the preamble of the accompanying claim 1. The invention is particularly intended for use in connection with that type of child seats, which is provided with safety belts.
In connection with vehicles, e.g. passenger cars, safety belts are used in a known manner to protect those traveling in the vehicle. In the case of a collision or of hard braking, the passenger can be retained in his seat by means of the safety belt, which provides enhanced safety.
Normal vehicle seats and safety belts are not adapted and dimensioned for achieving optimum protective action where the passenger is a small child. For this reason it is previously known to use special child seats, more particularly in the form of separate child seats that can be detachably fitted in one of the existing vehicle seats. Child seats, particularly those for infants, are commonly adapted to be fitted in a reverse position in the passenger seat of the vehicle, i.e., so that the passenger in the child seat will be traveling with his back turned towards the front of the vehicle. Hereby, a high safety is achieved for the passenger in the child seat in case of a collision or of hard braking.
It is known in the art to provide detachable child seats with a safety belt with the intention of providing a particularly high safety level. In this way, the child traveling in the child seat can be fastened and prevented from being thrown out of the child seat, for example, in a collision. Regarding the function of the safety belt, there is a general requirement to arrange it so as to run from a point behind the passenger and to be redirected at a point close to the shoulders of the passenger, i.e., at a position adapted to the length of the passenger.
Against this background, it is previously known to provide a child seat with a safety belt that has an adjustable height thereby being able to adapt to children having different body sizes. For example, within a family there may be a need for letting different children with different body sizes use the same child seat on different occasions. A requirement for adjusting the safety belt may also occur depending upon the clothing worn by the child seated in the child seat. For example, children may often change from thick winter clothing to thinner clothes. This will also contribute to the requirement of being able to adjust the height of the safety belt. In summary, it can be stated that a height-adjustable safety belt in a child seat provides an opportunity of achieving an optimum protective action for the child, in general independently of the child""s body size or of the thickness of the clothing worn by the child.
A previously known child seat comprising a vertically adjustable safety belt is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,161. The child seat according to this document is detachably arranged on an existing seat of a vehicle and is provided with a safety belt by which a child can be fastened. The safety belt is designed with two belt bands running from two points above each shoulder of the child and onto a fastening element, which in turn is adapted to be fastened into a lock in the seat of the child seat between the child""s legs.
The child seat of U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,161 adapts to children of varying size by providing the backrest of the seat with a number of vertically spaced openings. The two belt bands may then be arranged to run through appropriately selected openings in the backrest. Depending on the size of the child, the belt band can be detached from a previously selected opening and moved to another opening, giving the optimum fit for the passenger of the child seat.
Although the known child seat discussed above generally functions to satisfaction, it has one substantial drawback in that it is cumbersome and time-consuming to rearrange the belts traps vertically. As small children grow quickly, the child seat will have to be adjusted frequently, and, this being a cumbersome operation, it may easily be neglected, which might in turn entail that the child seat will not provide the desired protective action in case of a collision.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with conventionally designed child seats, the present invention has been developed. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.
The present invention in its several disclosed embodiments alleviates the drawbacks described above with respect to conventionally designed child seats for vehicles and incorporates several additional beneficial features.
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved child seat for vehicles, which solves the above problem and which provides an automatic vertical adjustment according to the body size of the child. This object is achieved by a device, the characteristics of which are stated in the accompanying claim 1.
The child seat according to the invention comprises a seat, a backrest and a vertically adjustable seat belt consisting of at least one belt band, equipped with a locking device arranged for lockable co-operation with a belt lock that is fixedly anchored in said child seat. The backrest of the present invention is designed with at least one vertically extending slot, with the belt band arranged to run through said slot and up to said belt lock. When a child is placed and fastened into the child seat according to the invention, each individual belt band will automatically adapt to the body size of the child so as to run over the shoulder portion of the child. Accordingly, the belt band in question can thus be adapted to the passenger of the child seat, in general, independently of the body size, or of the clothes worn by the child.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is utilized as a separate child seat, for detachable attachment into an existing seat of a vehicle. Preferred embodiments of the invention are further defined in the accompanying dependent claims.
The term xe2x80x9cchild seatxe2x80x9d in this context refers to a particularly designed location in a vehicle that is intended primarily for children of an age of up to about 4 years. This term comprises detachable child seats as well as parts of existing, fixedly mounted vehicle seats. The term xe2x80x9cchild seatxe2x80x9d shall further be regarded as comprising seats turned either forwards or backwards in relation to the traveling direction of the vehicle.